How To Burn Stored Body Fat — A Ketosis Primer

“Cut the carbs,” answered another mom. “I go into ketosis just about every afternoon.”

“Ketosis? Isn’t that bad for you?”

The short answer? No.

I talk to a lot of people who want to lose weight. They try all sorts of things — exercise, calorie restriction, you name it. Sometimes, they lose the weight. Inevitably, they gain it back. That’s because what they’re doing is going on a diet — a temporary fix at best. What they need is a lifestyle change, a perspective shift, a new paradigm. Of course, you all know the paradigm I espouse — a conversion to eating real, traditional foods.

Yet even a conversion to eating real food won’t necessarily help the pounds melt away. If you’re still eating 200 grams of carbohydrates a day — even if they’re “traditional” carbohydrates like sprouted or soaked grains, unrefined sweeteners, etc, you’re not going to lose weight without making some serious changes.

If your body is regularly storing body fat (you gain a little bit of weight each year), then something is wrong with how your body metabolizes food. Let me introduce you to a new concept: the body fat setpoint.

The body fat setpoint is the mass of body fat that your body attempts to defend against changes in either direction. It’s your body’s attempt to maintain homeostasis. This is why if you exercise more, you eat more. It’s also why if you restrict calories, your metabolism slows down to compensate.

We care because this has some very important implications for human obesity. With such a powerful system in place to keep body fat mass in a narrow range, a major departure from that range implies that the system isn’t functioning correctly. In other words, obesity has to result from a defect in the system that regulates body fat, because a properly functioning system would not have allowed that degree of fat gain in the first place.

So yes, we are gaining weight because we eat too many calories relative to energy expended. But why are we eating too many calories? Because the system that should be defending a low fat mass is now defending a high fat mass. Therefore, the solution is not simply to restrict calories, or burn more calories through exercise, but to try to “reset” the system that decides what fat mass to defend. Restricting calories isn’t necessarily a good solution because the body will attempt to defend its setpoint, whether high or low, by increasing hunger and decreasing its metabolic rate. That’s why low-calorie diets, and most diets in general, typically fail in the long term. It’s miserable to fight hunger every day.

So, how do you “reset” the system? How do you train your body to start burning stored body fat?

One word: ketosis.

Ketosis is the state that your body enters into when it starts converting stored fat into ketones to use as fuel for your cells. If you eat plenty of carbohydrates, you will never enter into ketosis. Instead, your body will simply use all that glucose as a fuel.

Is Ketosis Dangerous?

Ketosis has earned a bad name, though. For one thing, your body enters a ketogenic state when it starts starving itself. But if you’re eating plenty of calories and sticking to a nutrient-dense diet, you need not fear starvation. Ketogenesis doesn’t destroy muscle tissue, but is rather the process by which stored fat is turned into ketones — a perfectly usable energy source for every major body system. Others object to ketosis because it gets confused with ketoacidosis, a dangerous state in which the body not only becomes ketogenic, but also causes the blood to become too acidic. If you’re still getting your limited carbohydrates from vegetables and fruits, you need not fear ketoacidosis.

Finally, ketogenic diets, which are generally lumped together by critics, have gotten a lot of bad press. While experts have generally recognized their effectiveness for weight loss, very low carb diets that result in ketosis (like the Atkins) have been criticized on health grounds. The problem with these criticisms? They’re based on diets that allow for 20 grams or less of carbohydrates a day. While I believe we are not meant to run primarily on carbohydrate energy, I do believe we depend on the nutrients offered by low carb vegetables and even some low glycemic fruits. A diet of 20 carbohydrate grams simply can’t allow for the plentiful intake of nutrient-rich vegetables.

When your carb intake is low enough, say 50-80 grams a day, ketosis kicks in when it needs to. Over time, this process becomes efficient as the body “unfolds” in its genetic expression. Yet this carb intake is high enough that you can freely include copious amounts of nutrient- (including potassium) rich vegetables to offer the body sufficient nutrition, fiber, and alkalizing minerals.

In other words, when you cut your carbohydrate intake to 50-80 grams per day and still include plenty of vegetables and fruits in your diet, then your body can safely enter into ketosis when it needs to.

Once you’re at your desired weight and you don’t hope to lose anymore body fat, then sticking to anywhere between 100-150 grams of carbohydrates per day will help you maintain your new body fat setpoint.

The glory of thinking this way is that you absolutely never have to count calories! In fact, you probably don’t even have to count grams of carbohydrates. Just avoid grains, sugars, and sweet fruits. If you start craving those foods, eat more saturated fat from traditional sources like ghee, coconut oil, tallow, and lard. (I swear this works!)

For recipes and practical instructions for eating this way (dairy-free and grain-free), I highly recommend Bacon & Butter — the Ultimate Ketogenic Diet Cookbook

With this New York Times bestselling book, you’ll begin dropping pounds immediately — and learn how to keep them off for good — by following a low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet packed with tasty, wholesome meals that you’ll love.

It’s the simplest way to get started, and at the moment, the printed version of this cookbook is 100% free to Food Renegade readers. You just pay shipping & handling.

When you reach your desired weight, give yourself more grace to eat sweeter fruits and the occasional properly treated grain, tuber, or legume. I call this going Paleo-ish. It’s not for the Paleo or Keto purist, but it helps me keep my sanity!

When you’re in your “maintenance” mode, what you’ll discover is that you’re eating a diet much more in line with traditional cultures around the world — a diet devoid of artificial and processed foods, a diet full of healthy fats from quality sources, a diet rich in fermented and living foods, a diet absent sugar, you get the picture. The exact quantities of meats, vegetables, and fats you eat can vary greatly depending on your cravings and preferences, but one thing will be sure: you won’t ever want to go back to how you ate before.

About the Author

Kristen Michaelis is a passionate advocate for REAL FOOD -- food that's sustainable, organic, local, and traditionally-prepared according to the wisdom of our ancestors. While she adores hats & happy skirts, nothing inspires her quite like geeking out over nutrition & sustainable agriculture. Nutrition educator & author of the go-to book on nutrition for fertility, she's also a rebel with a cause who enjoys playing in the rain, a good bottle of Caol Isla scotch, curling up with a page-turning book, sunbathing on her hammock, and parenting her three children as they grow into young adults.

Shannon — Completely true! That’s one of the reasons I love the Eat Fat, Lose Fat book by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig. They take weakened thyroids into consideration and promote a lot of good-for-your-thyroid foods like coconut oil, cod liver oil, and seafood. Sadly, a lot of us have done a lot of damage to our body’s natural functioning just by eating the standard American diet for too many years.

I agree and seem to be very stuck. I have tried low carb and didnt get any results. And I too have Hashimotos. I didnt have problems with weight loss though until about 4 years into diagnosis. I would love help from anyone who understands this condition. I gave up gluten, most all dairy, almost all sugars and eat minimal grains.

only I remember symptoms coming back close to my period, but nothing that bad like before.Me too had suffered Thyroid disease. They say Hishimotos is not curable, but I feel I have no symptoms anymore since I changed my lifestyle. I took “detoxified Iodine” in drops for months on and off. Then L-Thyrosine plus lots of relaxation, exercise, ketosis on and off (burned lots of toxic fat) and getting rid of all my mercury amalgams from my molars. All this worked for me and rarely symptoms come back; I have been like this for 4 years now and like 3 times Hope this helps!

Everything is curable . Just because the doctor who told you that cant cure it himself doesn’t you mean you can’t cure it. Remember a doctors Job first is to put money in his pocket by keeping you coming back. Our function on this earth is to evolve which is mostly surpassing the body’s limitations. On your death bed you will never say “gee if I only I had listened to that Doctor And moped around at home all day and sat on my ass I’d still be alive !” Lol. Live!

Robert! I’m so very happy to see this! I completely agree. When I was 15 and again when I was 30, I was told I had chronic fatigue syndrome. Each time I asked how you get better, they said “you don’t”
I refused to believe that I was going to have to live like that. In fact, I made a pact with myself that I would get drastically better within 10 years or end my life. Wel… I’m still here. I’m now 41 but the cure is not found in alopathic, nor “natural medicine and it requires taking responsibility for our situation, something most are not willing to do. But with the firm belief, as you state. Just because someone doesn’t know the cure, doesn’t mean it’s incurable. Just because you don’t know how to do something doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Everything is impossible until someone does it, then suddenly many others can do it. Be determined to be the first and don’t discount anything that feels right.

I am somewhat surprised by your statement that large numbers of Americans suffer from an underactive Thyroid… it is not a common condition and there are only a couple of things that cause it, such as Type 1 Diabetes, or Hashimoto’s disease.

Another cause may be treatment for an overactive Thyroid or rarer still, a lack of dietry iodine or an issue with the pituitary gland..

I very much doubt your diet has much effect on it, except for the lack of dietary idodine and if someone told you that, I would seriously recommend you ask your Doctor for a very simple cheap blood test that will confirm or deny this.

I think the important thing is here is that your body is going in and out of ketosis as it needs to. I do have concerns about diets that artificially try and fool the body into ketosis at all times. If our bodies really did need to stay in ketosis at all times, I think we would have evolved to eat only those foods that did that. This, of course is not the case. We have a variety of organs that extract a variety of nutrients from a varied diet. This strikes me as important. Sometimes our bodies should be in ketosis and sometimes they need energy and nutrients from some lower carb fruits or vegetables.

great information here, I think this could be helpful to lots of folks. one thing though, you can’t eat fruit with abadon if you want to keepbetween 50-80 grams carbs per day. one apple can have approximately 20 grams all by itslef- carbs in an apple. Personally I am attempting to eat no grainsand keep carbs under 100g per day for myself. Even eating traditional foods as written in NT can be quite high carb, as you’ve alluded to.

I had a baby 8 weeks ago. Although I only gained 18 lbs, and lost all but 4 with her delivery, I have gained another 5 lbs despite nursing exclusively (thanks to holiday treats, I know). These 9 lbs add to the 5 lbs I couldn’t lose after my son was born 3 years ago.

Until reading this post, I wasn’t sure what to do since I am nursing every 3 hours. I definitely can cut out the grains and starchy vegetables, replacing them with fats and proteins along with lots of vegetables. Although my girlie has reacted when I drink raw milk, she’s been okay with raw cheese, kefir and yogurt, as best I can tell.

A couple questions:

– how do nuts play into this sort of change? I love them and have probably eaten far too many over the past 8 weeks. But something like almond butter with celery might help me kick the carbs in the initial change. Thoughts?

– my farmer has no eggs this winter, so I have to buy them from other sources, and I’m certain they’re not pastured. I’ve hesitated to eat them liberally. But they provide so many options at breakfast and lunch. Which is better – eating eggs from less than ideal sources or skipping them until my farmer’s hens start laying again (March, if the weather cooperates, otherwise April)?

– how do things like bacon/sausage work in these circumstances, since they have some sort of sugar in their ingredients?

1) Nuts are okay, but can be high in carbs. Perhaps you can try using the calculators at FitDay.com for a week to see how what you eat affects your daily carb intake?

2) I know the dilemma! I buy the grocery store eggs with a nutrient profile most similar to pastured eggs. In my area, that’s Eggland’s Best. I don’t worry about labels like “free-range,” “cage-free,” or “organic” because they’re pretty meaningless. (Check out my post on Health Eggs: What To Buy for more specifics.)

3) Try and get bacon/sausage that’s uncured and sugar-free (or at least lower in sugar than other options). Then eat it!

4) Yep, along with potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, bananas, etc. Again, when in doubt, check out the nutrient counters at FitDay.com to see how what you’re eating affects your daily intake of carbs.

My biggest concern about ketosis is that it triggers the body to break down rather than rebuild. I believe lower carbs can be beneficial, especially for those who have insulin-related conditions. However, the simple act of drastically reducing carbs sets of a hormonal reaction in the body. Basically, excess adrenaline and cortisol are released as a response to eating less carbs than you need. This feels awesome at first and can result in some fat loss, but over the long term it can damage your metabolism as your adrenal glands burn out because they can no longer keep up with the diet. I certainly don’t think low-carb diets are useless, but they should be used with caution and not just to get rid of a few pounds.

Elizabeth — I don’t think a low-carb diet would stress the adrenals at all — not if you’re eating enough protein & fat to make up for it (i.e. not restricting calories). What stresses the adrenals (increasing adrenaline and cortisol) is radical swings in blood sugar levels. When blood sugar dips, those hormones sky rocket to adapt to the stress. A diet high in fats and protein will have much more stable blood sugar levels than a diet high in carbs. Rather than the radical highs and lows associated with eating meals and snacks high in carbs, your blood sugar will remain relatively stable and give your adrenals a much needed break.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think a high carb diet is healthy. Not in the least. It does wear on the adrenal glands just as you said. I’m more for a moderate carb diet, such as around 100-150 grams or so per day, depending on your health and activity level.

The body requires a certain level of glucose to fuction at its best. The best source of glucose is from carbohydrates. Of course, the body can readily break down proteins into glucose when needed, but this requires the release of adrenaline. The more your body relies on adrenaline to convert proteins into glucose because you aren’t eating enough carbs, the further you will push yourself into adrenal burnout. This will happen quickly or slowly depending on how extreme the diet is, as well as other factors like whether or not you ingest a lot of caffeine or if you’re under a lot of stress.

Releasing adrenaline to convert proteins into glucose is a survival mechanism, and the affect is similar to what would happen if you were on a low-calorie diet. Of course, I think a low-carb, normal-calorie diet is healthier than a low-calorie diet. It’s all about balancing rebuilding with breaking down. A low-carb diet with traditional, healthy food obviously won’t break you down as fast as a low-calorie standard American diet, but over the long-term it will still do damage.

Hence the advice to stick to a diet of 50-80 grams of carbs per day if you’re trying to lose weight. That way, your body only goes into ketosis when it needs to, rather than sustaining ketosis for the long haul.

100-150 grams of carbs per day is perfect to maintain the status quo, so we definitely agree there.

Also, the small amount of adrenaline used to convert protein to glucose is far less than the amount of adrenaline most people use adapting to the frequent blood sugar swings common for those eating the standard american diet.

In other words, the benefits to your adrenals of leveling blood sugar levels and “resetting” your body fat setpoint far outweigh the risks associated occasionally having to convert some protein into glucose.

I agree with you on a lot of points there, Kristen. And I definitely have a lot of respect for the work you do, I hope you understand. That’s why I’m a follower. 🙂

I think your suggestions are extremely valid for someone who is used to eating the standard American diet with a lot of carbs, vegetable oils and processed foods. That’s the recipe for insulin-related conditions, and a short-term low-carb diet (of 50-80 grams like you recommend) can be a great remedy for that. But the key is definitely “short-term”. Once you’ve gotten control of blood sugar levels it’s better to start slowly increasing carbs (like by 15/day every week or two). So I do agree that low-carb diets can be beneficial and even necessary for someone who has issues with proper insulin response.

My concern is for people who don’t have blood sugar problems and are already eating a diet of nourishing foods to go on a low-carb diet just to lose some weight. They are already on the road to recovery, and a healthy body is primed to lose weight – not the other way around. It’s all about encouraging balance in the body.

Obviously a low-carb diet will affect some differently than others. I just want to address the fact that I have run across many stories from long-term low-carbers who run into problems of unexplained weight gain, sudden difficulty sticking to the diet, caffeine/stimulant cravings, mood swings, headaches, troubling sleeping, etc – all symptoms of adrenal imbalance. And these stories come from folks who were eating real food in normal amounts (i.e. not starving themselves or living off diet soda or something).

I’m an advocate for a higher-fat, moderate-protein, moderate-carb diet for the majority of people, so trust me, I’m not suggesting a high-carb diet is healthy. Not at all. I completely agree that the body needs a lot of fat and protein to “fuel” the fire the proper way and regulate blood sugar. And to be clear, I do think a low-carb, normal-calorie diet based on real food is far, far healthier than the standard American diet without question.

Both Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon, and The Schwarzbein Principle series by Diana Schwarzbein delve deeper into these concerns. These books are focused on healing the body with real food, healing imbalances with balaced nutrition and a balanced lifestyle.

Elizabeth- I think this is what happened to me. I was eating around 100 grams of carbs a day 2 years or so ago and was able to lost 10 pounds and get lean. I stayed that way for about 9 months, then slowly my weight came back. I also have hashimotos. I am now 10 pounds heavier.. 6 pounds above what used to be my set point. When I was trying to get the weight off, I did go very low carb for a while.. around 23/day. Didnt feel so great. so I didnt last long. But now, I cant get weight off no matter how clean I eat, or what my workouts are comprised of. Is there a way to heal your metabolism?????

Body fat set point! Great term for what I’ve noticed in myself. I got down to the midish 180’s over the summer (before spiraling wildly out of control), but it took quite a while for my body to jump back up 10 pounds to the mid-190’s. I’ve never jumped back up to the mid 200’s though, which was apparently my bodies highest homeostatic fat point!

Hello Kristen, am glad to know how you enjoy life at peace with nature.

I have some queries:
I read somewhere that ketosis is responsible for bad breath. And i am suffering from one. Also i suffer with acid reflux. My weight is about 176 lbs.
For gerd i frequently take pantodac , which is a proton pump inhibitor. I try to take proper care of teeth, brushing , flossing. But problem persists.
Beside above i’m healthy. But i wanna live a better life. i wanna control gerd and bad breath. And ya , i’m 45yrs indian male. Pl. suggest.
Thx in advance.

I’ve been eating low carb steadily since 2004 (and also in my last trimester of pregnancy in 1998) both for my weight and my BG (which goes into diabetic levels with the amounts of carbs most people eat). In 2005 I gradually became more serious about cleaning out the processed industrial foods, a la Weston A Price, then with a paleo influence (soy, veg oils, CAFO products, concentrated fructose/agave, etc.) from my diet. Despite “clean” food I still have to watch my carb intake and BG. In 1998 when I was pregnant and was surprised to be diagnosed with gestational diabetes (probably preexisting, but caught during the more rigorous screening in pregnancy, I now think) there was no family history of diabetes, but now I have three relatives on one side of my family diagnosed with diabetes. I’m at high risk and probably already have broken glucose regulation (little or no first phase insulin response), so 100-150 gms of CHO a day for me is out of the question. I’d be gaining weight and on the fast track to diabetes.

The body works very hard to keep the BG level at a fairly steady level at all times – about 5 gm or about a teaspoon of glucose for the average adult. Seriously, the healthy amount of glucose cruising around in our blood is only about a teaspoon at any given time (now go calculate how many teaspoons -sometimes tens of teaspoons – of glucose we eat or feed our kids in one serving of many favorite “staple” foods, industrial or traditional, let alone several times a day.

There is some glycogen (storage form of glucose) in muscle meat (not much, but there is some), dietary protein can also be converted to glucose if needed (assuming adequate protein in the diet), and some non-starchy veggies also contribute quite a bit of carbohydrates, which is more than enough carbs. For the many people with compromised glucose regulation, it doesn’t take much sugar and starch to push us into the danger zone day after day, year after year. Carbs drive insulin secretion/production and insulin drives fat storage (and prevention of fat burning).

Burning dietary carbs for energy is like feeding a fire with newspaper (frequent and urgent hunger). Burning dietary or stored body fat for energy is like a red hot fire of coals. You only have to feed it a log now and then. This time of year (january) the media is awash in “Get Thin/Get Fit fat-burning” advice, but they rarely mention that fat-burning mode is also ketosis.

I agree that the amount of carbs one can eat is highly dependent on how dis-regulated one’s metabolism was to begin with. Further, some of us need to restrict both total calories and carbohydrates.

When I am working all day outside in the summer I can get away with up to 50 grams carbs. Most of the time, however, I need to stick closer to 30 grams and below. My blood sugars just go way out of whack above that.

Further, I need to stick to between 1400 and 1600 calories a day. Any more than that and I start to gain weight.

The way I keep my carbs so low is to avoid fruit almost entirely. I eat some fruit in the summer–but that’s fruit season, anyway. Focusing my carb consumption on leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables gets me plenty of nutrition.

Thank you for the timely advice, I have been trying to figure out the ‘why’s’ behind the high protein diet. I eat way too many carbs, and it will be difficult to get off the sugar high, but armed with knowledge I can do it!

What I’ve come to understand about adrenal response is that a high sugar/high carb/high caffeine intake (often combined with high emotional, physical, or psychological stress) sets off the radical and destructive hormonal response that ultimately taxes the adrenals, not the other way around.

Lowering carb intake might very well expose an existing condition of overused adrenal glands, though. Without the customary “jet fuel” energy that sugar/starch provides or the body is accustomed to, the adrenals inappropriately kick in adrenaline or cortisol to raise BG quickly instead of burning fat or ketones.

Hi
Great post! I’ve been toying with the idea of going low carb, and have been reading up on all the “diets” out there-Atkins, Protein Power, etc. I admit that the idea of restricting carbs down to 10-20 grams a day is frightening. AND it seems to be a lot more difficult. Frankly, I think I’d be much more successful with a 50-80 grams/day carb limit. We’ll see.

This is interesting.
Having spent some time on weight loss and eating disorder communities, I always thought of low carb regimens as something highly effective – but extremely damaging because I have talked to people who ruined their health by following them. Until now, ketosis was something I associated with anorexia.

The idea that a low carb is only dangerous when taken to extreme and can be manageable, is new – but also makes sense. I have known a number of things demonized by others… but in reality, that only applied to the extreme ends of the spectrum, which are always suspect. Balance and moderation seem to be the magical concepts.

After reading this, I will check carb content of vegetables and look into getting my carb intake down to about 100 g a day (I’d would still be scared to go lower than that…) and see what happens. It’s not like I need to lose weight – it’s more cosmetic, I merely would like to go from size 6 to size 4 – but it is interesting to try something new that seems to be slow, healthy, and sustainable.

Oh, and I have already virtually eliminated processed foods from my regular diet, started cooking from scratch and eat an enormous amount of vegetables… So the adjustment should not be too difficult. But I like my grains, fruits, and sweets, and I never before seriously considered drastically reducing those. On the other hand, I have already learned that when your diet changes, sometimes you don’t even miss the things you thought before you couldn’t live without…

So how do we treat raw milk, carb-wise?
I was so excited that I could finally tolerate whole grains by soaking/fermenting that I didn’t consider that even properly assimilated carbs are still carbs. So I’m steadily reducing the amount of bread I eat.
Also, I just recently started eating a raw salad (about a cup total) of grated carrots, beets, radish and chopped celery and green onion about twice a day. I dress it with the Bragg’s vineagrette whose recipe is on the bottle. Could that be too high in carbs? I don’t feel the ‘tireds’ after, and I’ve lost weight, but not so much around the belly.
Thanks for the great site!

Raw milk has plenty of carbs. If you’re trying to cut your carbs, you’ll need to take that into account. If you want to keep drinking the raw milk, then just be aware of how many carbs are in a glass and adjust the rest of your carb intake accordingly.

When it comes to calculating how many carbs are in a particular meal, I highly recommend the calculators at FitDay.com. You can add in each individual ingredient of any particular home made meal, and then it will break down the nutritional info for that particular meal or day of eating.

Ok, but seriously? WHAT do i eat? really? I want to do this, but I am about to walk out of the house all day, and I have no idea what to take with me today. (so today will probably be a fasting day with some kombucha.. lol ) But WHAT do I eat all day trying to do this? any and all help in that area would be awesome!
.-= nichole ´s last blog post …Fragrance ingredients contaminating newborn babies – take action! =-.

Nichole — Is so much of your diet grains, sugar, and sweet fruits/veggies that you honestly can’t think of what to eat? If yes, then I recommend getting your hands on the book The Garden of Eating. It’s full of tons of recipes, as well useful advice for how to run your kitchen to make on-the-go snacks and lunches possible.

A few easy pointers:
1)replace rice with grated cauliflower! It cooks in a lot less time, has almost no carbs, and serves well to replace rice in 95% of recipes.
2)you love pasta because of the SAUCES. So keep eating all those sauces, but pour them over your meat & veggies instead of over the pasta.
3)use “pasta” that’s made from vegetables. Asian markets sell a kelp/seaweed pasta and a mushroom pasta. Or you could use spaghetti squash or stringed zucchini to get your “pasta” fix.
4)replace sandwiches for lunch with either easily reheated leftovers from dinner or a salad that’s got plenty of fat (sour cream blended with olive & coconut oils or bacon grease & herbs is nice and full-fat) and protein (top the salad with cooked meat — taco meat, fajita meat, smoked salmon, tuna, eggs, etc.)
5)when you crave sweets or bread, eat more fat! Cook those eggs in extra butter, drizzle your steamed veggies with bacon grease, stir coconut oil or full-fat raw cream into your hot tea or coffee. Eating more fat will clear your foggy-headed brain and make that carb craving disappear.

I’m going to write a post about this later today. So be sure to come back!

Thank you so much! I will be back.. this is a long standing problem for me, since going toward NT.. (you’d think I’d be skinny as a rail by now.. haha) But because we are sticking to grassfed meat, raw milk, farm eggs and bit of seafood, it can be difficult for us to really fill the fridge with protein sources, as those things are more expensive for us.. we have been HEAVILY relying on grains (because of cost), so if I can figure out how to remedy this it would be great!

thank you so much for the ideas! amazing ideas! I’m about to find that book and I am waiting with baited breath on your past later!

We are in the same pickle with eating quality foods on a budget. Check out my Eating Real Food on A Budget post for the details of how we do it.

When going low-carb, if you can’t afford quality protein two things stand out:

1) Eggs! Even farm-fresh eggs are relatively cheap when you consider how packed-full of nutrition they are. They’re not just a breakfast food. Egg salads make great lunches, poached eggs in stews and soups make great dinners.

2) Fat! Cut the carbs and eat more fat. It’s also relatively cheap, but it keeps you full and rounds out meals that might be a little skimpy on the protein.

Hi there,
I’m a big cheese, milk–dairy eater in general (organic , whole–can’t get raw milk in BC easily–soon though I hope!) . Do I need to take into account the carbs in dairy products as well?….I hope not…

I think that if you try to limit your carb intake to only one of your meals per day, say at dinner only, it is easier to keep track of! Thanks!

The carbs in cheese, butter, cream, and ghee are almost non-existent. But milk is another story. If you’re trying to go low-carb, you may need to cut back on raw milk just while you’re trying to lose weight. OR you can prioritize the raw milk, but cut back on the carbs in other areas (i.e. no carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.).

I’ve lost one clothing size since May 2009 after becoming vegan. For “carbs” I eat sprouted grain bread periodically, popcorn made at home with peanut oil and sea salt, oat groats, and potatoes.

I do not eat any conventional bread or pasta and have lost my desire for dark chocolate. <— sad but true….it was a near addiction!

I eat a lot of vegetables, less fruit, olive oil, nuts, Vegenaise, fermented soy occasionally. It is obvious to me that I reach ketosis nearly every day because I have "bad" breath. <— another sad but true moment.

My diet is very simple, doesn't include animal products and ketosis apparently has played a part in my weight loss.

Last night I ate two small baked potatoes and a side of carrots and red onion sauteed in peanut oil and rosemary, all with Vegenaise to dip. A typical meal.

Thank you for this really good overview of Ketosis. Because of the Anti-Candida diet we’re on, we’re all in ketosis right now. Though I’ve heard it is safe, I never found a really good blog post explaining it…until now.

Funny, I just had a discussion with my wife that went a lot like what you just said… with a fair bit of "sugar is sugar" thrown in.

One thing I have always enjoyed about eating paleo is that you realize that, most of the time, you don’t need to use sugar (or other sweeteners) at all. In fact, the food is almost always better without them. Actually, once you start taking away all the sauces, etc. that seem to go along with the "Western" diet you are reminded of just how good real food tastes all on its own.

Fish oil is a means, not an end in itself. The goal with the fish oil is to try to bring your Omega-3s and Omega-6s into a balance closer to our pre-agricultural ancestors. The ideal is to avoid getting your fatty acids out of whack to begin with by avoiding vegetable oils and eating fish and pastured animal products.

In today’s podcast Robb Wolf recommended 0.5 – 1.0 grams of EPA+DHA per 10 pounds of bodyweight per day. "Half a gram is for people who are generally healthy but have been eating a standard diet. The 1.0 level is for people who are very overweight or sick." He then advocates a maintenance level of .25 grams per 10 pounds of bodyweight after 2-5 months.

The way to go is just to avoid the toxic fats to begin with. Since I started cooking in pastured pork lard, ghee, and beef tallow, I now pretty much just use olive oil for salad dressing and that’s it for vegetable oils for me. I’m doing about a tablespoon of fish oil a day. with a little more on the rare occasions that I eat out.

Interesting post. I still think the best way to stay healthy is to eat a balanced diet composed of nutritious foods and exercise regularly. Exercise also regulates your metabolic set point, and is more effective than trying to maintain wait through diet alone.

This is the best article I’ve read concerning burning fat. I dropped sugar from my diet six weeks ago and fat is melting off me like crazy. I also dropped refined carbs, as much as possible. But I still drink beer and wine. Exercise is limited to 4-5 half hour bike rides per week and taking the steps at work. I think it’s no coincidence that in the past 30 years the American carb intake has skyrocketed along with the growth of the health club industry and yet, we’re all getting fatter. Exercise is not nearly as important as what you eat. You don’t have to go crazy.

How do endurance sports play into this. If I only ate 50 – 80g of carbs and did my usual 32 mile bikes rides 5 times a week I’d bonk in a hurry. In fact, I tested this. On days 3 I could barley ride 12 miles. I ate about 2500 calories (good calories), 50g of carbs for two days and I bonked hard on day 3, the point where I was almost in an over trained state.

This may be a dumb question… but if I eat a fair amount of dietary fat, will my body burn that fat before burning my stored body fat? Do I need to be concerned about the amount of fat I eat as well as carbs? Or do I just focus on staying low in carbs and creating a caloric deficit so my body fat is eventually burned?

I was wondering however, does the body utilize “STORED FAT” better when in ketosis rather then using a lower carb diet?

In other words, once you’ve converted the body to use fat as primary fuel source instead of the glucose in the body, and do cardio or HIIT training etc. and burn off all the ingested fats consumed through the day and then finally start using “STORED FAT” as fuel.. will it be used up more efficiently and burn faster?
Rather then the same situation! Same amount of calories, training etc. then when the glucose is burnt up and start using “STORED FAT” but not in ketosis.. when slightly more carbs?

after 24 hours of non-glucose intake ie food…your body will start to use the ketone sources that are in stored fat, must be careful no to go too far or it will destroy muscle when the body runs out of fat to use for energy muscle mass comes next

Interesting read. I have a question though that may be obvious, but I’m missing it. Why would one want to eat 50-80 gms carbs/day to only be in ‘ketosis when your body needs to’? When would the body NEED to be in ketosis? When would it NOT need to be in ketosis? How much weight could one expect to lose in comparison to one who follows a conventional Atkins plan by eating 20 gms carbs/day? BTW, I also read that as long as one is eating less than 100 gms carbs/day, they remain in ketosis…do you agree? Thanks.

Well, first, I’m pretty grossed out by the photo of the feet. How about trimming the nails and having CLEAN nails in a photo. Gross. I was so turned off by the photo that I decided not to read the article. But then I read someone’s post about their thyroid… and I may ….but really…. that photo is nasty.

So many ways to lose fat. This like Mark’s paleo is another, you eat well but not too much food with all the macro nutrients as a balanced diet and exercise regularly.
You’ll lose weight cutting minimising carbs just isn’t fun. I’m more than happy to show you pics of how lean I and others can I get by being eating normally !

Another important point missed is the issue of saturated fat and LDL Cholesterol.. Recent Research has proven that fasting makes your body burn this bad cholesterol as an energy lowering your overall score.

The other point about fasting is that nature did not design the body to have food available as and when we felt like eating, therefore a well balanced diet of healthy foods (I deem this to be 60% Protein, 30% Fats and 10% Carbs) combined with IRREGULAR periods of fasting helps maintain a healthy metabolic rate by not allowing it to get ‘lazy’ by predicting when you are going to eat, lowers your LDL Levels and helps maintain a healthy BMI

I would be grateful and hope to lose the 30 pounds I gained in the last 3 months by eating 2 cups of white basmati rice with beans every night (I had no idea why I kept getting FATTER and then being hungry all day, on top of eating more carbs during the day…probably an average of 400 grams of carbs per day! Now I am back to a diet that’s “PRO-ANA” (anorexic ‘bootcamp ABC’ diet of alternating calories between 100 to 500 calories maximum per day for about a month). I did this a couple of years ago, and got down to 94 lbs (I am 5’2 short girl with small frame). I actually felt great most of the time, but knew I could not live like that forever, so I maintained at 105-ish pounds until this white rice emotional eating. To stop rambling, I want to skip the unhealthy Pro-Ana low cal diet, and want to stick to 20 to 45 grams of carbs a day forever. My Question is… Besides having scrambled eggs, salmon, tuna, (I don’t like beef or chicken)…plus greens like kale and broccoli, with a few carrots here and there,…WHAT CAN I EAT??? I feel miserable and so depressed when I look in the mirror…and remember how thin I used to be.
Is there any way (PLEASE…PLEASE…) You could give me an example day or two of what I could eat to lose these 30 pounds (I weight 135 now)??? I am praying for help from an expert like you… that might do this out of the kindness of your heart (and high IQ). 🙂
Thank you! 🙂

I have no idea what the article was about. I couldn’t get past those disgusting hobbit feet on the scale. Please tell me those were the feet of a gorilla with all that hair. Good grief the hair was so long you could have braided it. And if those were human feet those nasty yellow toe nails should have been cut two years ago. This must have been a joke picture. Am I the only one that noticed? That doesn’t seem possible. I don’t think there is a big future in foot modeling for this hobbit; I mean person.

With havin so much written content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism
or copyright violation? My blog has a lot of completely unique
content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it appears a lot
of it is popping it up all over the internet without my agreement.
Do you know any ways to help stop content from
being stolen? I’d certainly appreciate it.

The picture accompanying this article (the guy’s feet on the scale) is so disgusting, I nearly left instead of reading on. Couldn’t you find a model with cleaner toenails? At least one that’s clipped and properly groomed? So gross!

In order to het Ketosis. You must have 50-30g of carbs in a day? What constitutes carbs? I make black bean brownies with Amaranth and Quinoa flour. Does this count as a carb? What about hummus? What about complex carbohydrates?
What would you consider a carb really?

Thank you so much for this post. I’ve been on ketosis diets before, found that it’s the most effective for me. My biggest challenge is always maintaining which leads to me gradually going back to old eating habits and inevitably gaining all the weight back( such a stress)
So this segment is really for me as I am three week into my ketosis diet, feeling absolutely on top of my game but really want to focus on how I maintain my weight after reaching target and how I stay healthy.
Another reason I am greatful for this post is this negative press on ketosis made me worry about long term effects to my body. So thank u again. I hope to be an embassader of this lifestyle especially for black South Africans because we were born and brewed and dangerously starchy diets and it becomes hard to break the habit.

Would this way of eating suit someone who is a newly diagnosed coeliac? My daughter is 20 years old and since going gluten-free, she has been gaining 1 kilo every week. She used to be 56 kg and is now 63.3 kg. While this may not sound much, all the weight has gone on her mid-section and she’s struggling to fit into her clothes. Everyone keeps saying the weight gain is due to her body finally being able to absorb nutrients again, and that gluten-free products can be quite starchy. However, I know exactly what she has been eating and there have been no cakes, sweets, desserts, fried foods – nothing to warrant gaming 1 kg each week. All I can think is that the malabsorption caused by the coeliac disease has damaged her metabolism in some way, and that now she can absorb foods, her body is over-compensating and laying down fat. I thought I might try her for a couple of weeks on the ketosis diet to see if during these weeks she doesn’t gain any more weight. We are tearing our hair out over this, as calorie-wise, she’s not been over-eating.

I wouldn’t have believed it unless I had seen it for myself! I have been on a keto diet for about 3 weeks now and not only am I burning fat, but my energy level has seemed to baseline out. I no longer feel the post-meal crashes I use to after a carb-based meal and I find that, probably due to the lack of sugary snacks during the day, I am not as jittery or restless during the day.

This article is still so valid, even though it was written 6 years ago. That is because it works. I was at least 200 pounds when I changed my diet. But nothing happened after the first year. Yes I felt better, my skin looked healthier and my bowels were much happier. But I was still about the same weight. Two months ago I came across these tips and decided to try it. It was hard at first because I had to reduce the diet, that I was so proud of maintaining, even further. But it got a lot easier once the ketosis set in. Many other people have described the same experience but I had to do it myself to believe it.
Once my body was accustomed (or primed) to do ketosis, I began to see a difference on the scale. And in the mirror. So if you have read this and are wondering whether it works: stop searching for the perfect answer and do it for 3 weeks!

Please revise your statement on the dangers of ketosis vs DIABETIC ketoacidosis. There is no harm being in dietary ketosis. The endocrine system works in its optimal state while in dietary ketosis. Which is why living a ketogenic lifestyle reduces and even eliminates the risk of metabolic syndrome and other conditions/diseases. Diabetic Ketoacidosis is a condition caused by diabetes and not diet/food consumption.

I would suggest a little more care with the words you use. You say that the state of ketosis occurs when the body starts to starve itself. This is incorrect and really, a bit ridiculous. How can someone be starving if they are eating their daily caloric (or more) requirements? On a ketogenic diet, the body simply switches fuel systems. Not eating carbohydrates doesn’t mean you’re starving. The state of starvation is very different than a planned and well executed ketogenic diet. It means you’re changing the fuel source. Furthermore, the fact that you have to eat fruit is a myth. You absolutely do not have to eat fruit to be healthy. ( https://zerocarbzen.com/vitamin-c/) . Finally, you also do not need vegetables to be healthy either. The food pyramid, we should all know by now is a joke. It was created by the department of agriculture, not the department of health and every day (if you’re paying attention) you will see all kinds of evidence that it was built with an agenda, not with science. So. Go ahead and eat the fruit and vegetables if it makes you feel better and you like it but don’t think you HAVE to to be healthy. There is plenty of evidence of 100% carnivore diets and healthy people.

Hello, my advice would be, that to lose weight and reduce the abdomen, is to exercise and more specific to the waist. Also decrease the consumption of sugars, fats, do not drink milk. Instead, vegetables, fruits and once or twice a week meat. Do not drink soft drinks, better water or fruit water. Sleep the necessary hours. Thanks and good luck.

Hi, Thanks for your great article. Actually, there are plenty of options available to help you shed excess fat and improve your health. Incorporating some healthy habits into your routine and switching up your diet can make a big difference. Even minor changes to your lifestyle can have powerful effects on fat burning. Be sure to pair these simple tips with a nutritious, well-rounded diet and active lifestyle to simultaneously boost fat breakdown and improve your overall health.